The Red Bull Cape Fear event that just finished up was, without a doubt, one of the craziest events in all of surfing. At truly massive Ours–”pound for pound…the heaviest and most dangerous wave in the world,” according to Mark Mathews–competitors voted unanimously to hold the contest in 12-15 foot, nearly unsurfable waves. And holy shit, what a show. At the end of it all, 18-year-old Russell Bierke stood atop the podium.
The first day of competition saw totally maxed out Cape Fear. “I think everyone in the event would agree this is the biggest the Cape has ever been surfed,” said Blake Thornton after the first day turned into a tow-only event. “I was really nervous before the event started, then once I got out on the back on the jet ski I was pumped up and ready to go. I didn’t want to wait too long before I got my first wave because I knew the nerves would build again, and thankfully managed to get a good one early. Even though I got absolutely smashed at the end of the battle it’s going to be a surf I remember for a long time, with one great wave and one of the worst wipeouts I’ve ever had.”
Surprisingly, over the course of five heats, there were only a few real injuries. Three people were sent to hospital, including Justin Allport. Known as Jughead, Allport smashed his head onto the rocks, went unconcious, and very easily could have drowned, but for the efforts of the rescue team. After heading to the hospital for a general check up and a shoulder injury, He was later released and thankful to his rescuers. “The boys out there were so good,” he said. “All the pro-guard guys did an amazing job, especially Ryan Hipwood – driving the jetskis for us surfers – I can’t thank him enough because he was first there. I was pretty pumped when all the boys had my back.”
Strangely enough, the Red Bull event hosted none of some of the biggest names in big wave surfing–no Greg Long, no Mark Healey, no Shane Dorian, etc,–and the WSL had everything to do with it. Since the WSL won’t let their surfers compete in non-sanctioned events, a whole bunch of people who would have loved to surf the Red Bull Cape Fear event were left wanting and angry. “Well done #redbullcapefear!” wrote Mark Healey on Twitter. “We gotta keep diversity in big wave surfing. No monopolies until the surfers get paid what they’re worth!” Among the other angry big wave surfers was Albee Layer, who has never been shy to criticize. “People who surf on the WSL full time aren’t allowed to do any other events,” he told Stab. “Which for the guys on the CT makes sense. They get paid much better than the big wave guys and all have good cash coming in from their sponsors; they can make a healthy living. On the Big Wave Tour we only get two or three events each year and not even a quarter of the prize money. If you won every event of the year, you’d still make less money than someone who places last every time on the CT.”
At the end of two days of insanity, Bierke, the hard-charging teen from the South Coast, put a bow on it with a perfect ten. Chances are good that we won’t see an event like this any time in the near future, so if you missed it, catch up with a full event replay on Redbullcapefear.com.
